File:Pewaukee Apple Memorial Orchard 02.jpg

George Peter Peffer (1821-1894) George Peffer emigrated to Pennsylvania from Bavaria with his parents in 1835. He then moved to Pewaukee in 1842 (six years before Wisconsin became a state) and started a water pump factory. This is also where he established an 80 acre fruit tree farm near the present entrance to the WCTC campus. Peffer began experimenting with fruit tree grafting methods and was the first to introduce grafting to Wisconsin farmers. By 1880 Peffer's nursery had 11,540 various fruit trees and his work had made Pewaukee famous throughout our State. During that time he crossed the Duchess of Oldenburg with the Northern Spry to produce the new variety, the Pewaukee Apple, which he registered with the government. By 1870 he won the Wilder Silver Award from the American Pomological Society for the Pewaukee Apple. Peffer exhibited his apple and nursery stock at the St. Louis (1885) and Chicago (1893) World Fairs. At one time, there were many apple orchards in the Pewaukee/Waukesha area. Many of the trees, no doubt, were purchased from his Pewaukee Nursery Catalogue published in 1873 by the Waukesha Freeman.